Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 12:10:11 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: GPL nonsense: time to stop Message-ID: <20011218121011.E21649@monorchid.lemis.com>
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I can't be bothered to reply to any more of the GPL thread. It's clear that we have in the project a vocal minority of rabid anti-GNU people who ignore the facts, and in some cases twist statements to suit their own prejudices. I don't believe we have a need for people like that in the project. I certainly don't intend to feed them. The fact is that Stallman says: > If you link some GPL-covered code into the kernel, the GPL's > conditions will apply to the kernel as a whole. But only to that kernel, which is a binary. The only effect the GPL has on a binary is to require the supplier to also supply the source code on request. I can't imagine that we'd have problems with that. > I don't think that results in any legal difficulty. The FreeBSD > kernel uses the revised BSD license, right? That is compatible with > the GPL. So you can link these things together. The kernel code > released under the revised BSD license will continue to be under the > revised BSD license; it is only the *combination as a whole* that > will be covered by the GPL--if and when the GPL-covered code is > included in it. If someone links a kernel without that GPL-covered > code, the GPL won't apply to that kernel. > > The main consequence, legally, of including some GPL-covered code > would be that you could not *also* link in other code with > GPL-incompatible licenses. There's one unclear area here, that some of the files still use the original BSD license. I need to discuss with rms what effect that has. Greg -- Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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